Misbah defends batting approach

Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, has defended his steady batting approach, saying he plays according to his role in the batting line-up. "You have to understand that every player has a role in the team and he should play according to his role," he said upon his arrival in Lahore from Dhaka after winning the Asia Cup. "You should not become a liability for the team by leaving your role. My role is very simple and I play that role accordingly.

"Most of the critics are those who have not played cricket in their lives and one should not listen to them. My focus is on cricket and I will try to play my best cricket for Pakistan. When I feel I am not enjoying cricket, there's no point playing it."

Pakistan have had a good run over the last year and a half, the limited-overs series loss against England being the only blip in that period. In Test cricket, they won series against New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh and England*. Their only Test defeat came against West Indies in a drawn series.

Pakistan have already made an impact this year, whitewashing England, the No.1-ranked team in Tests, 3-0 in the Test series before losing the Twenty20 and ODI series to them in the UAE. They then won the Asia Cup in Bangladesh, beating Bangladesh by two runs in the final.

Misbah said Pakistan were no longer unpredictable as they had achieved consistency in winning. "To say Pakistan is an unpredictable team, people should think and look at the stats," he said. "We have the best ratio of victories [to defeats] in the world in recent years and an unpredictable team does not have such a ratio."

Misbah also praised Bangladesh for the fight they showed in the Asia Cup; the hosts' two-run defeat deprived them of their first major multi-team tournament title since becoming part of cricket's elite. "Bangladesh played quite differently in the tournament," he said. "They defeated the world champions (India) and the runners-up (Sri Lanka). It was a very big achievement and the way they played against us in both matches, they exploited their home conditions and looked like an emerging team."

The Asia Cup win sparked off celebrations on the streets in several cities in Pakistan but Misbah also called on his country's fans to support the team in trying times, not just when they were winning. "Whenever Pakistan team wins people are always very happy and support the team. The real test comes when the team is in difficult times.

"It's a game, there's victory and defeat. It doesn't mean that you start saying bad things about the team after one series. Obviously, when the team plays it will win and it will lose too. You should back it always and if we do it, the performance will improve."

Shahid Afridi said he was impressed with the spirit of Bangladesh team. "It seemed as if we were playing against Australia in the final. Bangladesh have matured a lot as a team and it felt good to win such a hard final," he said. "I think by holding the BPL they did well and their players fought hard. I think we also need to make our domestic cricket as competitive as possible. We can look at the examples of the IPL and BPL while counting the benefits of such events."